November 15, 2014

Crowdfund my ass: Caterham fires all employees same day it announces fundraising success.

I wonder how many of those who sent money to Caterham feel like they have been played today?

On the same day the British team triumphantly announced it had met its crowdfunding goal and would be show up at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, it appears they fired all employees at the factory in the UK. Not only was the entire workforce sacked but they were let go being owed the last seven weeks salary.

“It is dismaying to see the amount of publicity surrounding the success of the crowdfunding on the same day that there entire workforce was made redundant while owed seven weeks salary. The cynic in me would suggest that the two are not unrelated and the good news has served as a convenient opportunity to bury the bad news. If this is the case then it seems to have worked as there hasn’t been a peep anywhere"

That is an excerpt from an email sent to Joe Saward by a "former" Caterham F1 employee, you can read the rest here

The reason Caterham desperately wanted to go to Abu Dhabi is because if they don't sow up they will forfeit any funds owed to them as part of the Concorde agreement, The owners are in debt and they need any money to put a dent in those debts. But by firing all their employees they are in effect killing the team.

Now my question is a simple one: if they fired all their employees, who is going to unpack everything and put tires on the cars?